I would like to take this free moment before my pre-emergency-christmas-shopping and getting-ready-to-leave-for-the-family-reunion-in-a-panic, half-ready-drove-madly-forgot-to-leave-food-for-the-cats-again classic holiday fun to wish all of the AdKrispies fans a HAPPY HOLIDAY and a FANTASTIC NEW YEAR.

I hope 2007 brings you peace, love and understanding. See you next year.

Spotted on Tokyomango, here's a 90's ad featuring Arnold Schwarzenneger advertising an energy drink called "Arinamin V" in Japan. The clip itself is a treasure of weirdness when you don't understand japanase, but fortunately, our friend Lisa at Tokyomango took the care to explain:

"Schwarzenegger wins a bunch of money at a strictly business mahjongg game that he and his business partners are hosting. (He was supposed to let the client win.) His partner, the guy on the right, freaks out, saying "No no no, you're not supposed to win!" As expected, the defeated (and humiliated) client says: "Mr. Inoue, I'm sorry, but we'll have to retract from the previous agreement." Arnold hides behind the wall, and emerges saying "Daijou-V!" And the chorus starts chanting the same thing. (Daijobu means "it's all good" in Japanese.) All of a sudden, everything is all good. The businessmen shred the papers, forget the formalities, and have a blast. Arnold has saved the day without using superpowers or politics."Wow. I could never have guessed. (Thanks, Tokyomango!)

CHECK OUT THIS CRAZY GOOD, slap-your-forehead-cuz-you-aint-worth-shit campaign for booksplus. I think they nailed the one universal message that says it all. I am in awe. I'm going to practice my advertising swing right now. (Thanks, BoingBoing!)

Gaming juggernaut Ubisoft and Montreal agency Revolver 3 have put together this series of entertaining viral videos for the upcoming launch of Rayman: Raving Rabbis Rabbids. One part cute, one part fun and one part disturbing. Watch.

Incredible production by director Ivan Zacharias and legendary house The Millin London.From CGindia blog : "Bringing the Vaseline brand into the 21st century, Ivan has used a mix of live action and animation to create this beautiful film about how amazing our skin is."(Thanks, LLamamelola!)

A brilliant rebuttle campaign for Greenpeace, whom are often portrayed by the media as being disruptive and a bit extreme in their attempts to thwart environmental wrongdoings -- with the results that public opinion fails to see that all these efforts are for the greater good. I guess this is a great kick in most of our collective non-greenpeace-effort-conscious asses (can I say "ass" on the internet? Haha.) Agency unknown - please post credits in the comments and I will add them. (Thanks, AdsOfTheWorld!)

Actually, I'm trying to finish the pre-christmas work marathon in one piece. Your regular AdKrispies content and schedule will be on a lighter schedule for now, and will (hopefully) be back in regular strength next year.

Today is the live launch of the France 24website, the internet ambassador of persistent worldwide information channel France 24 - aimed at concurrencing CNN on worldwide news. To celebrate the event, you may watch the channel exclusively on the website today.

French President Jacques Chirac saluted the launch of France 24 yesterday, saying that "France should have its own regard on the world, and broadcast it", while affirming that the channel would be totally independent. France 24 will be broadcasted on cable, satellite, but also ADSL in Europe, Near-Orient and Middle-Orient, Africa, New York and Washington.

Finally, someone did something about the CNN monopoly. Considering the much awaited need for a second (and probably less biased) worldwide information channel, I think this launch will be a complete success.

One of the first things I see from commercial creativity (tm! Quick note here: guys, why did you go and trademark your "commercial creativity" activities? Won't you agree that a new notion becomes more credible and accepted once it's democratized and everyone can use it?)agencySid Lee in Montreal, for Orkus Skate Park.

In case you're not from Montreal, and don't know what you're looking at: this is a boardwalk cleaning machine, slurping up a skater. Funnay. (Thanks, Marketing Alternatif!)

And the new TV spots are just excellent. In the cinema section, you can actually download them for your Ipod or PSP - and rate them! Wow. With their "What do you think?" line, Volvo rejoins this club of announcers who finally opened up their eyes on the whole word-of-mouth marketing craze these days, and put some more power in the hands the consumer. So to speak. And it's working! Proof is, I'm talking about it.